How Specialty Retailers and Small Brands Can Enlist Influencers 0

Apr 13, 2012 | tags: , , , , , , , ,

I just got off the phone with a excellent journalist in the outdoor recreational markets. He is writing an article about how specialty retail and smaller brands can get traction in the social media space.  He is writing it for the Outdoor Industry Association Newsletter called WebNews, and I encourage you to look for it. The general feeling in the industry, apparently, is that specialty retail and the smaller brands are at a disadvantage compared to the larger retailers and brands when it comes to engaging with the likes of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

I don’t agree with that assumption, but we will stay focused here.

Small specialty retail is, by definition, local or regional. So, they should focus on the local and organic way of doing things. And that means attract the local athletes that have local influence. And that means these folks show up at the local races and events, compete and generally do well. They are the “go to” people locally when consumers have questions about bikes, hiking shoes, climbing gear…you get the idea. Now, if these people have a blog, are on twitter, or publish in some other way…all the better.

The focus for specialty must be on local…local events, local athletes and creating local buzz.

Now, for the smaller brands. They should attract Influencers, but here is the criteria at Channel Signal. If a person:

1. Publishes

2. Has substantial Followers or Friends

3. And is Authentic, meaning that his/her followers are authentic and the content is wanted/needed…

then these are true Influencers. Now, who else are Influencers. Retail salespeople. Published media. And national blogs. Why? Because  consumer traffic is either driven to them, in the case of retail salespeople, or people read them because they are in big daily or weekly publications.

Now, both specialty retail and small brands can attract Influencers by publishing useful, interesting content. And that means “how to” pieces on being better at road biking, mtn. biking, climbing, hiking, trail running, minimalist running…and the list goes on. Consumers are excited. They want to learn. They want the best equipment they can afford. And they want guidance.

Retail specialty can do all of these things through their web sites, by publishing content that appeals to consumers (and therefore) to Influencers…and is then picked up by Influencers and gets widely distributed within the region. And it drives consumers into the store.

Small brands must also publish great content, attract genuine Influencers, engage them by asking questions about how to improve the content, how to get better, and how they would like to engage with your brand. Do not try to sell them. Repeat: do not try to sell them.

So, that’s my two cents on Influencers. Have much more to write, but that should do it for now.

Oh, and one more thing. I too want to throw my hat into the ring, already crowded with every imaginable politician, and proclaim that I too believe that Moms work really hard.

Peace and out.

 

Paul Kirwin

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Brands are Bit Players in Consumer Storylines 0

Mar 27, 2012 | tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

I put Walt Disney on top of this blog because he understood, more than anyone, that the customers were the kings and queens and that his cast members were there to serve them. Brands, many brands, seem to have gotten far from this thinking.

It seems that most companies believe in the standard form of branding, meaning telling a brand story and believing consumers will adapt it. Consumers will follow the brand because the brand has positioned itself as being a part of the momentum, the cool, the lifestyle. Huh, uh. Frankly, it has never really been that way.

It is the other way around. Brands are adopted by consumers, and only if consumers like the product, what the brand stands for, and that it FITS  INTO THEIR LIFESTYLE.

As Channel Signal collects more and more consumer feedback for companies, it is becoming apparent that it is all about consumers and their lives. It has very little to do with brands, even the powerful brands.

The best that brands can do? Build great product. Create events that consumers participate in. Be known for doing good deeds. Do business responsibly. And then hope that the brand is adopted into a consumer storyline.

The storylines are in every tweet, blog, consumer review, pinterest post…everything.

. A brand is powerful when it is a role player. Egoless. Humble. Only there to help

Their products are role players. Grassroots events are role players. Athletes are role players. Advertising should be built around the real stars.

Consumers are the kings and queens…now, more than ever.

And they  will choose who is and isn’t a part of their lives.

Brands would do well to stop trying to sell into a consumer’s life, stop telling them what they should be and begin to understand what they are.

And then build product to satisfy that need.

Because in the end, doesn’t a great salesman, work to learn the true needs and wants of a prospect?

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Kirwin

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

The Ever Increasing Roar of the Crowd 0

Mar 6, 2012 | tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The public is now being heard loud and clear. And it won’t stop.

On the world stage the cry for freedom is being heard in Syria. It has been somewhat realized in Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. Syrians seem to believe that the power of guns displayed by the the Assad regime won’t win the battle. The revolutionaries will keep fighting and throwing bodies into the battle. As Ho Chi Ming once famously said, “ You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win.”

And the videos and tweets keep coming. From cell phones, they are telling the story of the struggle. Real. Raw.

Here’s a great graph of the Arab Spring Revolution. The Guardian Graph

And now back to the corporate world. Things aren’t going so well for companies who make promises and don’t keep them, create new pricing, back the wrong horse or change the rules in midstream. I have included a great piece from Mashable about the recent troubles companies have had when they ignored the publishing power of the consumer. Coke. Go Daddy and The Bank of America heard the roar, ignored it, and lived to regret it.

Consumers are judging brands on products, brand performance, brand promises, advertising, grass roots events…everything. This isn’t just social media anymore. Think of this as Consumer Sentiment, and they have opinions on everything a brand is doing.

Consumers don’t believe brands just “make products” anymore. That is because brands have come out with sustainability studies, environmental stances, corporate opinions on the behavior of entertainers (think Limbaugh), and have backed legislation they believe is good for themselves and their industries.

It’s a new world. And brands are being held responsible for their products, actions and opinions.

Here are some examples of corporate stumbles in this Mashable Article.

 

Paul Kirwin

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Flying Blind 0

Feb 21, 2012 | tags: , , , , ,

When I first started in the outdoor recreational business, I remember marketing directors saying how much they wished they could measure the training videos we were making and the advertising they were launching. Well, in those days, you couldn’t and that was that.

However, almost every part of a brand’s performance in the marketplace can now be measured. And consumers (the critical component) are the ones judging the brands.

I’m not just talking about social media. I’m talking about a brand’s advertising, print, radio, television, grass roots events and customer reviews. Consumers are judging everything.

And I can hear it now from some businesses, “Well, not everyone is online…and it’s not really that simple.”

Here are the facts.

77.3% of Americans are online.  239,890,000- United Nations Communications & Technology 

72.6% of these Americans, 14 & older, bought online in 2011,  148,000,000.-eMarketer 

58% of Americans research online before buying-Pew

23% of these Americans research online every day-Pew

The vast majority of Americans are online. They are buying. They are doing research about your brand. And they are publishing their actions and opinions.

A company should be building a feedback loop into America. This information is great for middle management. The data proves-out successful programs and helps kill unsuccessful ones.

And a company should be building this “voice of the consumer” information into senior management reports.

Then senior management can have a very clear snapshot of what is working and isn’t working with respect to product, advertising, marketing initiatives and public relations efforts.

Don’t have this information?

Then all of the company’s managers should take a moment, put on blindfolds and ear plugs, and walk into a room filled with your potential customers. Say….a retail store.

Don’t hear much? Don’t see much?

I wonder why.

 

Paul Kirwin

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

The Coming Change 0

Feb 13, 2012

Many people are walking away from their “too many” social media channels. They are choosing social media more wisely because they are coming to the conclusion that publishing their lives in real time can cost them time they are not willing to give up.

People are getting off Twitter and concentrating on Facebook or Google+. Or they are getting off Facebook and just working with Twitter. Or they are getting off everything and concentrating on their lives.

As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Well, it seems to me that could now be rearranged to mean, “Life is what passes you by while you’re busy with Facebook.”

In the past year, At a “State of the Union” at Twitter’s headquarters Twitter announced that it has over 100 million active users worldwide, half of whom log in daily. However, only 40 percent of those people tweeted in the past month.  TechCrunch reports that Twitter defines an “active user” as “anyone who logs into Twitter once a month,”

Miley Cyrus, with over 2 million followers, has not helped Twitter’s cause. She up and quit. She then posted on YouTube this,  “I want my private life private,” she intoned. “I’m living for me.”

Nielsen reports found that more than 60% of U.S.-based tweeters ditch the site after their first few posts.

Harvard Business Review says that the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one, and over half of the estimated 20 million people on Twitter tweet less than once every 74 days. That means that the vast majority of conversation on the site is produced by a very small group of people. HBR also reports that  10% of tweeters make over 90% of all tweets.

According to ‘Inside Facebook’ 6 million American users not only considered quitting Facebook, they also acted and left the social networking site.

Life is when your daughter comes home from school with grades waaaay below expectations. Or your son doesn’t make the basketball team. Or your wife gets laid off. Or your father dies. Life is the real thing, in real-time, and many people are now coming to the realization that life deserves a lot of attention. Much more attention than any social media channel.

So, if people are de-emphasizing social media channels and concentrating on the channel that is most rewarding…where does that leave companies?

It means that companies will now be forced to focus. Where are your real customers? Is the brand messaging being seen and heard? Is there two-way communication with consumers who are engaged?

And, of course, brands will need social media reporting to measure what is getting traction and what isn’t. Without this reporting brands have no compass. And with no compass, they will be be shooting in the dark and, most likely, wasting a lot of money.

Think delivering a message to a crowded room with no one listening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Kirwin

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Measurement. Measurement. Measurement. 0

Dec 21, 2011 | tags: , , , , ,

It has been said that you can’t improve what you can’t measure. An article from eMarketer emphasizes that statement. Debra Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst, states,

“Marketers often think of social media measurement as listening and monitoring. But that is only one part of a fragmented process, which has contributed to a lack of focus for both marketers and vendors. It has also created a culture of data overload, in which metrics that do not have much business value have more importance than those that contribute to the bottom line.”

Alterian has just released a report that says that 70 percent of all senior management reports have no social media reporting in them. And this is at a time when marketing and public relations departments are asking for more and more dollars to finance the growing social media presence.

The reason social media is absent from these reports is because everything should work backward from the reports. What do you want to see from social media and how should it be compared to the other marketing initiatives? Social media metrics need to line up with the corporate structure so that comparisons can be made.

Social media is not some strange animal that nobody knows how to measure. However, it is strange when there is no context to the reporting and when the reporting has no home in senior management monthly reports.

Click here for the entire eMarketer article. But just had to get my two cents in first.

By the way, happy holidays to everyone. Best to you, your family, your community and the wildlife that lives around you.

 

Paul Kirwin

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Breaking Through the Clutter 0

Nov 11, 2011 | tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Bots(robots), affiliate marketing sites, discount sites and link farms are all making the conversation very crowded for brands trying to get their message heard online. All the entities have one purpose and that is to sell product. Some of it is discounted. Some of it isn’t. Some are names of sites you have never heard of, and some are names like Amazon.

Recently, we were asked by a leading brand in the outdoor and ski markets to search for it and see what we find. Well, it wasn’t pretty. Channel Signal search engines, which have blacklisted over 10,000 authors and sites, still came up with a ton of junk surrounding this brand.

Why? Because the company had not delivered good online content and sales pitches (selling primarily discounted product) had taken  over the brand’s identity.

We searched Twitter…could barely find any content about the actual brand.
Blogs…junk everywhere.
YouTube…better content here.
Online traditional media…not much.

To be clear, all of this sales noise is not all bad. A retailer, Amazon, posted 1,900 customer review ratings in the past year on a product produced by the brand with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Now, if you figure 20 percent of the customers who bought from Amazon wrote a review, that means about 10,000 sales in one year. Not bad from the online retailer.

However, the brand is being drowned out by the sales pitches. Can’t really call it noise because it does move product.

What to do?

First a brand must sharpen its identity online. Advertise to your target market about where to go…on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, your blogs, etc. In short, drive consumers to where you want them to go for your content. Then…

Fill these places with good content. Not content that sells stuff, but content that educates consumers. How to layer? Why a hat is important. Goggles and what they can do for you. Breathable socks. And make this information directly applicable to your product lines.

And then, build online relationships with your retailer partners.

1. Support online retailers with content they can push out and reprint on their own sites.

2. Train retailers to understand how to do things like embed a YouTube video, update their blog and utilize basic search engine optimization techniques.

3. License content correctly for reprinting/republishing through retailers with photographers, writers, video producers.

By building a grassroots content strategy through retail partners, brands can deliver better content online, serve their customers and drive sales with key accounts.

So, break out of the noise by building your content and building your partnerships with retailers.

Paul Kirwin

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

It Is Still Your Gut 0

Oct 27, 2011 | tags: , , , , , ,

 

 

Recently, while talking with executives about social media, I got three different messages from them:

1. I get it and we are building our social media presence. 

2. I don’t get it and until somebody shows me the money, I’m not gonna get it. 

3.  I know that we need to get on top of the social media thing, but I’m not sure if it will do us any good. 

 

Ok. Here is what social media data can do.

1. With the proper analysis, it  provides insight and justification for your major decisions.

2. It gives you the truth. And remember, every post, whether good or bad, has a good deal of truth to it.

And your “truth” and their ”truth” may be completely different. Not the same picture at all.

3. It gives real-time feedback on the performance of your products.

4. It provides trending information, which will be a leading contributor to upcoming sales forecasts.

 

Here are some things that data cannot do:

1. It can not make decisions for you.

2. It should not be  manipulated. If it is, it will be at great risk to your company and your career.

3. It cannot be your friend. When data says the momentum is good, it doesn’t care. When momentum is bad, it doesn’t care.

4. It cannot be ignored. Data is direct from are your customers, your life-blood. Ignore them and you ignore the performance reviews of your products. It is the beginning of the end for your company in the 21st century.

 

I say these things because recently there has been too much emphasis on both the power of social media and the weakness of social media. Both are true.

 

Social Media Reporting becomes a competitive weapon when you:

1. measure correctly

2. analyze

3. deliver the data in a way that senior managers can understand and compare to performance in other sectors of the enterprise.

And when data is delivered this way, it is still your gut, but with more ammunition.

Paul Kirwin

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

The Cul-de-Sac 0

Oct 19, 2011 | tags: , , , ,

The Cul-de-Sac is a great metaphor for what happens in social media.

People (people online) steer into the cul-de-sac. Sometimes they are lost. Sometimes they are looking for an address. Sometimes they are just driving around.

Do they want anything from the owner of the house (Brand)? No. Not really. Maybe a little information.

Does the home owner (Brand)  want anything from them? Well, in this case, yes, they want them to become customers. But the online environment doesn’t lend itself to persuasive selling. So there is passive selling through content. Or contests or giveaways, which is way worse.

So, most of the time it’s two ships passing in the night.

If you are a Brand, most of your friends and followers on Twitter and Facebook are just that:

Drive-bys.

Paul Kirwin

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal